


If Time Were on Your Side

by conceptstage



Series: Critical Fiction [13]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 03:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15833181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Caleb may have finally found a way to get what he's worked a lifetime for. But is he willing to pay the cost?





	If Time Were on Your Side

“All right,” Caleb muttered as they stepped up to the cave entrance. It seemed like the light from the setting sun behind them stopped at the rocks and it was pitched black inside. “I guess this is it. The Time Master.”

Beau crossed her arms beside him and frowned suspiciously. “I don’t like this.”

Fjord stepped forward and put a hand comfortingly on his shoulder, squeezing. “We’re with you, Caleb. No matter what, but maybe you wanna think about this for a little bit?”

Caleb breathed in deeply through his nose and then let it out in a sigh. “This is all I’ve been thinking about for years. This is my best chance.” Caduceus gave him a sad frown but nodded.

“But not your only chance,” Jester said next, holding Nott in her arms so that the goblin was at eye level. Nott’s bottom lip was wavering and he could tell it was taking every bit of her minimal self  control not to cry. None of them knew what would happen when he went in there. “We’ll help you find another way.”

He shook his head. “If they won’t help me, I’ll happily take you up on that Jester, but I have to try. I want you to know that I…” the words got caught in his throat and Beau shook her head before he could even attempt to dislodge them.

“Don’t say goodbye, man. I will smack you if you try to say goodbye to me right now, I swear.”

There was a booming voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. “ **_Who goes there_ ** .”

Caleb looked at the mouth of the cave and swallowed the lump in his throat. “Th-The Mighty Nein. We’re the Mighty Nein. I am Caleb Widogast, here to speak to the Time Master.”

“ **_You have found whom you seek. Enter and speak_ ** .” Everyone started towards the cave entrance but the voice spoke again. “ **_Only one may enter_ ** .”

The others looked unnerved but stayed back as Caleb continued forward, except for Beau which he should have expected. “I don’t fucking think so. There’s no way you’re going in there alone.”

“Beau…”

“ **_Only one may enter and only one may leave_ ** .”

Beau glared at the cave. “He’s not going in there alone. No disembodied voice is gonna change that.”

There was silence for a moment before the voice spoke again. “ **_Very well. Proceed_ ** .”

Beau gave Caleb a smirk and walked into the cave. He sighed, suppressing a fond smile of his own, but followed her into the darkness. He looked back once at the rest of his friends and gave them a nervous thumbs up. Darkness enveloped them before he could see their responses.

Dancing Lights didn’t work when he tried to cast it, so he held onto his friend’s arm, the magic of her goggles still working apparently. “I can’t cast in here,” he warned.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” she said, moving forward at a swift pace that he struggled to keep up with. “We’re coming to the end of the hall. It’s a… chamber of some-” she stopped speaking and moving abruptly.

“Beau?” She didn’t move or make a noise.

There was a light about thirty feet away that lit up the bottom of the chamber, just enough for him to make out a form across the room. The form didn’t seem solid and every time he blinked it changed shape. One moment it was the shadow of an elderly person, the next a small child.

“ **_Hello, Caleb_ ** .”

“Uh… Hi. What did you do to my friend?”

“ **_She is merely frozen in time. She will not be harmed or, truely, notice that anything has happened. Now, what brings you to me?_ ** ”

“I wish to alter time.”

“ **_Of course, why else would you risk coming here. No one performs the four trials to reach this cave for fun._ ** ”

“Beau might. She had a blast.”

The voice was different when they spoke again, younger. “ **_Well, there is always one. Why have you come to me to do this for you?_ ** ”

“Because I’ve done the research. I’ve dedicated my life to this. But everything I’ve found says that there is no way to do it.”

“ **_There is no mortal way. That is by design. You’re not meant to alter the past._ ** ”

“I must. I have no choice. I must.”

The voice was quiet for a moment. “ **_I will do as you ask, but I want something in return._ ** ”

Caleb nodded. He had expected this. “Of course.”

“ **_I have had no servant for some time. My last met an unfortunate end over seventy years of your time ago. I want a new one._ ** ”

“I will do it. If you help me change the past I will be your champion, I will do it.”

“ **_Not you._ ** ” A formless, flickering hand reached out and pointed a finger at Beau, still frozen with an annoyed sneer on her face. “ **_Her. Turn around, leave her here, and when you step outside my cave your wish will be granted. Fear not, they will not realize she is gone. I will erase the memory of her from time._ ** ”

Later, with his friends around him at the campfire, remembering those first few seconds where he considered saying yes would chill Caleb to the bone. He dragged Beau’s frozen form to the entrance of the cave and when they stepped into the light she fell to the ground, looking around in confusion. 

“What? What happened? We were just-”

“Time is strange in there,” is the only explanation he could give.

“What happened? Did you get what you wanted?”

“No. No, they couldn’t help me.” He sighed and felt every muscle in his body struggling to find the motivation to keep moving.

Beau stood up. She hesitated, but put her arm around his shoulders. Partly to support him physically because he looked about ready to keel over but mostly to support him emotionally, not that she was any good at it. “There, there,” she said, wincing.

Their friends were setting up a small camp a little ways away and seemingly hadn’t noticed them come out yet. Caleb just shook his head and started towards them. “It’s not the only way to get what I want. I’ll find something else.”

“Well, I’m with you,” she said, walking in step with him. “All the way.”


End file.
